hopefully not another nap resistor!

Little bug is actually napping in her swing! NAPPING IN HER SWING! I nursed her at around 11:20am to about 11:48am and then set her in her swing and turned it on so I could go make lunch for monkey and me. Took her a few minutes but she feel asleep! I am excited that maybe just maybe she will be way easier to get into a nap routine (when she is ready of course since I think she is still to young for one) and actually fall asleep easily by herself? I think it helps that her belly is full and she is a good nurser.

She did this yesterday as well after I fed her at 12:30 and slept in her swing while I played just dance 4 for almost an hour. She did wake up but the swing lulled her to sleep again and then at the end she did wake up and watch me.

Hopefully monkey doesn't wake her up with her loudness!!

Visitors :)

Visitors: Grandma, Aunt Tammy, Missy and Steph come to visit.

My sister messaged me on Facebook yesterday to ask what we were up to on Sunday. She said that she thought mum was going through Monkey withdrawal. :) So they came up to visit us on Sunday along with Missy and Steph. It was a nice visit. Unfortunately Monkey didn't get put down for her nap at the normal time so she was cranky by mid afternoon. She surprised us since she was climbing around on the couch and climbed onto mums lap (I think she was actually trying to get to the end of the couch) but ended up cuddling and then falling asleep! I think that mum rocking her back and forth helped with that a lot. It was the cutest thing ever! She is pretty stubborn and will not fall asleep anywhere but her crib (or the car if she is really tired). Chris was even able to transport her from my mums arms to her crib without waking her up. Poor little thing. We got a picture of her passed out even though it wasn't the greatest shot. We love our little monkey.

I am in nap time shock.

Yesterday for the first time ever I let my 7.5 month old cry herself to sleep for her nap. I knew that I probably would have to eventually do this but I was envisioning myself doing it when she was at a bit older. I only did it now because she has shown me that she could do it and because I needed her to start napping once again in her crib since she is so mobile now. She can't crawl yet but she can move herself around pretty good. Her naps lately have been in our bed since I could either take a nap with her or tip toe away after she was asleep. I could never master transferring her from my arms to her crib without waking her up. It was almost impossible to get her back to sleep after that. Since she is more mobile I am afraid that she will fall off the bed even with pillows surrounding her.

I used to nurse her to sleep for naps and at night and that was all fine and good until I needed to start weaning. For a time I was happy with half nursing/half formula feeding her. You only have to look at earlier entries of my blog to see all the trouble I have had with nursing so I thought I had finally found a happy medium that I was okay with. Any breast milk is better then none. I would have continued this for as long as possible if it wasn't for the fact that I need to go back to work at the end of January and that I seem to need to take donperidone to keep my supply up. Nursing to sleep had let me keep my sanity and our days were much better because it wasn't a long, long, long process to get her to finally drift off. Most days I ended up just skipping her nap altogether because after an hour of trying to get her to sleep I was exhausted. As I started to wean off of donperidone at the same time, I could tell my supply was decreasing. I got to the point where I was only nursing in the mornings and at night. Unfortunately for me getting her to fall asleep with the bottle was not working anymore and it was getting stressful for me again since if she did not sleep she was cranky and clearly tired and it made me upset so we both had not so good days. (Having said that I definitely did not give her her bottle and leave her to fall asleep with it, I would take it out when she was either asleep or switch to her soother. Maybe that is just as bad but it worked and I knew I wasn't going to do that for forever.)

It came to the point this week that she would eat all of the bottle and be cranky because she wasn't asleep. I was frustrated one day and had to put her in her crib and leave her for a five minute break to calm myself down and refresh my patience batteries so I could go and try to get her to sleep again. Well she cried for a few minutes then there was silence. I checked on her and she was fast asleep in her crib and actually slept for longer then she normally EVER does. I was in shock but relieved because I really did not have the energy to fight with her to get her to take a nap.

Yesterday was the first day that I let her cry it out and it was SOOO hard. She cried for almost 20 -30 mins straight with only a few slight pauses. I did everything I could not to go in there and get her. I twittered, I rambled on in a email to my hubby and my friend. Finally she was silent and when I checked on her she was asleep! It worked! It actually WORKED and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. She really surprised me. I was relieved and so happy that she had stopped crying because that seriously broke my heart to have to listen to her go through that! The kicker is that she slept for almost 1.5 hours!! Her max used to be 30 mins at a time which never was enough and when she woke up she was happy and not crying. I was also relieved that she had a big smile for me when I came in to get her. I thought she was going to hate me. She was content and ate lunch and played on the floor without whining or crying because she actually had a decent nap for once. Her second nap came and I have to admit that I delayed it as much as I could (but only for about 10 mins) because I was afraid that I would have to listen to her cry again and it would break my heart again.

I did her nap routine, (which is pretty short, basically wave to ourselves in the mirror, change her bum, turn on her music, shut the door and then feed her and kiss her night night and walk out) and the second nap there was not a single peep out of her and she again slept for 1.5 hours.

Today for her first nap she only cried for less then 20 mins with long pauses and slept for over an hour again. I am in COMPLETE shock! She woke up again and was happy. She was actually jibber jabbering to her little monkey for a bit after she woke up. I am so happy that she is finally getting decent amounts of nap time sleep and that she is happier in general! It was the same for her second nap today. A little bit of crying but you know what the little monkey butt is actually asleep. I now might be able to get some house work done if she continues to take decent lengths of naps! I just can`t get over it! I don't know if it's just because it had to be done, or if it's because we were trying to be consistent in her sleep routines, or if it's because of her age or what. I just know that I am happy that nap time is no longer a emotionally draining heart breaking fight! 

Sadly yesterday morning was the last time I am ever going to nurse my little monkey and despite all the problems I have had with nursing and how much I hated it, I have to admit that I am a bit sad. I had dropped the night nursing session last week sometime and was planning on keeping the morning one for a bit but being completely weaned off of the donperidone and her not nursing hardly at all, I have dried up. I could tell all this week in the morning that she wasn't getting too much. So as of today she is completely weaned and I am sad that it's over but happy that I was able to nurse her for as long as I did. Despite all the problems I have had, I do plan on nursing any future kids for as long as I can and hopefully the next time it will be a much better experience because I will not make the same mistakes again and I will know what I am doing. As for now I am going to go enjoy my quiet time while monkey is still soundly asleep and just have to say that 'Victory is mine!!'  ;)

My little nap resistor!

Last Tuesday and Wednesday night Monkey surprised me and slept straight through the night with only a minor half awakening when I dream fed her before going to bed myself. Not only did she do that but she didn't make a peep until Chris brought her to our bed so I could fed her and that was shortly after 8am! Thursday night unfortunately she woke up at 3:45 am. I hate getting up anymore to fed her because it's so exhausting. I shouldn't complain though at least at the most it only takes 20mins as apposed to 45 - 60 mins that it took before! Friday night it was back to sleeping straight through the night, this time with no dream feeding. All three times though I bolted awake at 6am and basically had to go check to make sure she was okay. I used to be bad for checking on her constantly but I have gotten better at it. This was so unexpected that it happened three times in one week. It's so nice to get 6 hours of sleep in a row. She did it again last night. I hope that this is a new trend!

Her naps all last week have been crappy. The only time she seemed to sleep longer or I should say stay asleep was when I fell asleep with her. Nursing her to sleep is easy when I get her at the right time. If I don't it gets pretty frustrated because she wants to nurse but she wants to look around at the same time. I have tried to darken our room as much as I can but I don't think it's dark enough still. I have been nursing her to sleep for naps in our bed the last few weeks since once she is out it is so much easier to just slink away once she is asleep. I don't have to shift her a bunch of times and then have to set her in her crib without waking her up since she ALWAYS wakes up when I do this. Some days I just need that 20-30 mins to myself and when she wakes up and cries it was really starting to take a toll on my sanity. She is such a nap resistor! The last few weeks however have been less stressful since I made the switch to our bed for naps. It's also so much easier to go back in there and nurse her to back to sleep to try and prolong her naps a bit, which results in one happier baby which makes for a much happier mommy.

I would be fine with short naps if she was okay with that amount of time but she is not. She wakes up clearly still tired, is cranky and just a terror to be around. I only was able to get her to fall back asleep without nursing a few times and sometimes that only lasted for 10 mins. I plan on staying in the room with her this week, so that when she starts to awaken after her 20 mins snooze I can lull her back to sleep right away. According to the no cry nap solution book if I do that after a week or so I won't have to help lull her back to sleep. Hopefully that is true because it would be nice to be able to get some things done around the house while she sleeps.

I think this week I am going to have to start trying to wean her off of nursing to sleep, at least for the first nap. I have to go back to work by the end of January so she needs to be fully weaned before then. There is no way that I can even nurse part time while being back to work, nor do I have time to pump. I honestly just can't take nursing any longer anyways. I have had so much trouble right from the start that I am ready to be done. I nursed longer then I thought I was going to. I remember when I was just trying to make it to the end of the 3rd month and here we are almost the 7 month mark. Currently I have replaced two nursing sessions which had made me less stressed out and much more happier. I was always constantly worried that she wasn't getting enough and quite frankly I don't think she was because after getting those two bottles a day she is a completely different baby. We also started feeding her solids at about 5.5 months old which I think also made a difference. 

So for now if I can wean her of the nursing sessions for naps I can keep the before bed, in the middle of the night if needed and the morning nursing session until December then slowly wean them out then. I know she can fall asleep without nursing since she has done it before. It is just going to be testing my patience a lot because like I said she is a nap resistor and is afraid to miss anything. Hopefully I will have some success! I'm sure after she gets used to not nursing to sleep for the first nap the transition with the second nap will be easy. Only time will tell, but really I have no choice. January is coming so quickly!

Do you have a nap resistor? What did you do to get your little one to sleep?